Weilai, which also said last month that it would not increase prices, finally could not hold back, and immediately announced a price increase after announcing the suspension of production.
WEILAI officially announced that due to the impact of the continuous sharp rise in global raw material prices this year, from May 10, 2022, WEILAI will make appropriate adjustments to the prices of its products.
Among them, the starting price of each version of THEO ES8, ES6 and EC6 models was raised by 10,000 yuan; while the starting price of ET7/ET5 remained unchanged.
In terms of the rental price of BaaS batteries, the rental service fee of long-lasting battery packs (100kWh) increased by 200 yuan to 1680 yuan / month; users who have purchased cars are not affected by this adjustment; battery packs are flexibly upgraded to long-lasting battery packs on an annual basis, and the price is adjusted to 9800 yuan / year.
Weilai's price increase is a preview version, giving users a buffer period. It is mentioned that users who pay ES8, ES6, EC6, ET7 deposits or ET5 reservation deposits on or before May 9 will not be affected by this adjustment.
Previously, in the fourth quarter and annual earnings conference call of WEILAI 2021 on March 25, Li Bin, founder and chairman of WEIO, said that "whether to adjust the price will be flexibly decided according to changes in the objective environment".
For this price increase adjustment, Li Bin frankly said, "Raw materials, especially battery raw materials, have risen too much this year, and there is no downward trend in the near future, I originally wanted to carry it, the epidemic situation is even more unbearable, the price increase is also forced ah, please understand."
Previously, Weilai officials have revealed that it is expected to release the 2022 ES8, ES6 and EC6 in late May this year, and the price of the upgraded model and battery may be adjusted accordingly.
It is reported that the 2022 model will be a major upgrade for smart hardware, including 8155 chips, 360 surround view cameras and 5G modules, etc., and the performance will be greatly improved.
It is worth noting that on April 9, WEILAI Automobile publicly stated that due to the impact of the epidemic, the cooperative supply chain was suspended one after another, and the WEILAI production line had to suspend vehicle production. Li Bin, chairman of Weilai, explained, "A car is not a part that can be produced. ”
Affected by the continuous sharp rise in upstream raw materials, new energy vehicle companies have raised prices, and in March, nearly 20 car companies have announced price increases for their new energy vehicles, ranging from thousands of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.
For example, Tesla has raised the price of some domestic Model3 and ModelY models for three consecutive times, and its domestic ModelY high-performance version has increased by 30,000 yuan in just a few days.
The price increase of Xiaopeng Automobile ranged from 10,100 to 20,000 yuan; ideal car raised the price of the ideal ONE by 11,800 yuan; SAIC-GM-Wuling also announced that the price of three models such as the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV increased by 4,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan respectively. In addition, car companies such as BYD and GAC Aean have also increased prices to varying degrees.
Weilai is relatively late, and the price increase is more restrained. The original price of the three models that WEILAI plans to raise prices is 378,000-566,000 yuan, and the price increase of 10,000 yuan is about 1.77% to 2.65%.
At present, the market demand side of new energy vehicles has not been affected by price increases, but the supply chain challenges are still severe. The recent epidemic has affected a number of important towns in the automotive industry chain, and local blockades have occurred in many parts of the country, which is a huge blow to the automotive industry chain.